A Shifter's Curse, Raven Steele [the top 100 crime novels of all time .TXT] 📗
- Author: Raven Steele
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My eyebrows lifted at his acknowledgment that we were doing something wrong. Maybe there was hope for him yet.
I picked up the human's legs to help heave him into the backseat. I gave him a firm look, my finger pointed his direction, and said, “Sit.”
He obeyed the command.
Huh.
I tried again. “Lie down.”
Again, he followed the order.
“Roll over.”
“Enough,” Samira snapped from the backseat. “Let’s go.”
I closed the backdoor. Silas still stood by the water’s edge. Moonlight illuminated the touch of gray in his hair. I could see the whites of his knuckles as he gripped the briefcase tightly. No doubt his mind was churning, thinking of a million different ways he could put Scorpion’s Breath to use. Samira was right. We needed to get it out of his hands. But how could we do that without revealing our own duplicity?
Luke put his hand on my arm. “I’m sorry about Toby.”
I stepped back. Luke’s hand fell to his side. “Um, thanks?”
His brows furrowed. “Oh, I thought maybe you two…”
I shook my head, glancing through the window at Toby’s body. Gerald sat next to him, his head in his hands. “Oh no. We never even… He would’ve been too good for me, anyway.”
Luke grabbed my hand and brushed at my middle finger. “You play with this a lot when you’re thinking. Where’s it from?”
He was talking about the ring I always wore. It was silver and of a bird in flight.
I waved my hand. “It’s nothing. Just an old ring I found in a thrift store.” That was actually a lie. I’d been given it by the only social worker who had ever cared for me. It reminded me that one day, I was going to be done with all this revenge shit and be able to fly away.
Or so I’d hoped.
He smiled, still holding on to my hand. “I like it. It suits you.”
He stroked his fingers down my palm, causing a shiver to take hold of my entire body. He let go, but his hand fell to my hip instead. He squeezed it, then gently pushed me forward toward the front door.
Insisting I drive back to keep my mind occupied, I slid behind the wheel. Luke joined Samira in the back. I grabbed the hand sanitizer we kept in the car and lathered it over my bloody hands, doing my best to clean them. Then I passed it around.
“Here.” Samira handed me two safety pins. I noticed her glasses were back on.
“What are those for?”
“Your breasts.” She glanced down.
I dropped my gaze to my chest, just then remembering how my knife had sliced it open. My black bra with my boob practically popping out of it was in full view. Bloody hell. Maybe that’s why the vamps and even Luke had hit on me. I quickly pinned my torn material together, my face reddening. “What was that earlier? When you yelled at me. Do you know the vamp leader?”
“If you killed Mateo, Silas’ deal would be dead,” she said, not really answering my question. “Then Silas probably would’ve killed you.”
“Aww, I didn’t know you cared. You should trust me more. I wasn’t going to actually do it.” When she didn’t respond, I looked up at her. “Can I ask you something?”
She gave me her dead-face, which I assumed meant to continue.
“How come you wear glasses? You have perfect vision.”
“Better than perfect.” She reached up and pressed them up her nose.
“So….”
“These glasses remind me to be human. Without them, it’s too easy for me to become a monster. I don’t ever want to return to those days.” She turned away, ending the conversation.
I stared at her, trying to imagine her as a killing machine. It was easy to do.
We waited in the car somewhat patiently for Silas to return. I glanced back at Gerald who was so quiet, but decided not to say anything. I turned to Silas, frustrated that he was making us wait in the car with Toby’s dead body and a wasted human. I was about to honk the horn when Silas finally returned.
Without acknowledging Toby’s body, he said, “Let’s go celebrate. The whole world’s about to change.”
Shivering at Silas’ words, I wrapped my hands tighter around the steering wheel and leaned into the side of the door. The drive back to Fire Ridge was long and cold, despite the heater running. I felt an ache in my tooth, and wondered if I needed to see a dentist. It also felt more like winter than autumn right now. I glanced at Samira in the rearview mirror. She seemed to feel the chill too. The only one who spoke was Silas when he made a call to Dominic to report our meeting.
Back at the mansion, a party was already in full force. Silas joined them with his arms outstretched, as if he was their savior. He held up the briefcase for everyone to see and yelled, "We're about to get filthy rich!"
The crowd cheered and Dominic slapped Silas on the back, smiling big. "Tell me all about it, brother."
But all grew eerily quiet when Gerald and Luke carried in Toby's body, a blanket covering him. I clamped down on the wave of emotions threatening to overwhelm me at the sight. It reminded me of the dozens of bodies, my own family members, I had seen as a child. Ever since, Death had rooted itself in my shadow, just waiting to kill anyone else close to me.
The party quickly turned into a wake. The shifters who were there when we arrived, gathered around the fire, pulling out more beer. Many shared their stories about Toby. I’d only known him a short while, but I understood the respect and love I heard in their words.
They would drink heavily tonight, then take his body to his family. It would be up to them if he had a pack burial or a traditional one. No one worried about what the police would think; everyone knew money would exchange hands and lies would be printed in the papers.
I scratched at my neck, an itch I couldn’t soothe. I thought of Ryder and scanned the crowd but couldn't find him, even though I had spotted his car out front. I wanted to see how he was doing as I hadn’t spoken to him much after we met with the Greybacks. When I couldn’t see him among the pack, I began asking around, but no one had seen him for a while. I began to itch at my arms.
After an hour of no Ryder, I slipped back into the mansion to search for him. Something was wrong. I felt it in my bones and began to wonder if what I was feeling was our blood connection. Ryder would be here for this, if only to know how the meeting went with the Nocturnas.
I stepped close to the sliding glass door, facing the rear of the house. Alcohol had soothed the pack's sorrow for Toby. They were back to being loud and obnoxious. They had a different way of respecting the dead than I was used to.
My gaze settled on Silas and Dominic, sitting on chairs away from the pack. Several others migrated to and around them, trying to catch their eye and be invited into their conversation. I frowned, disapproving. I could never live in someone's shadow like that.
They motioned Luke over and he left his friends to speak to Dominic for a few minutes. I wondered what they were saying. Silas and Luke walked off, probably to grab another beer, and I opened the door. For the most part, I tried to avoid Dominic, but I thought he might’ve sent Ryder off on an errand. So I took a chance and walked forward, rubbing at my arms.
He watched me approach, eyeing me up and down, but didn’t say anything, even when I stopped in front of him.
"Excuse me, Sir.” Ugh, I hated showing him respect.
He lowered his gaze to the beer bottle in his hand and swirled the liquid. "I heard you were instrumental in securing this deal for the pack."
"I only did what was necessary, just like Silas asked."
His eyes slowly met mine. "And did Silas ask you to press a dagger to Mateo’s neck?"
He watched me steadily, his expression giving me no indication of what he was thinking or feeling.
I stepped to the side, watching the pack. “I took the initiative." I wasn't sure if those words would anger or impress
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